Breakfast with Santa

We weren't sure if we'd be able to do do breakfast with Santa at the church this year.  Lesley asked about it no less than 8,843 times so although we were disappointed Jason's family couldn't make it to celebrate Christmas as was the original plan, we were at least able to enjoy some pancakes and fun with the guy in the red suit.

 

As suspected, the girls got nervous for the photo. 

At least Levi is young enough he can't back out and protest yet.

I wasn't as thrilled with the backdrop this year, but at least the kids were cute.

Leah eventually got brave enough to sit on his lap and even talked to him!!!  Here she was telling Santa that she is three years old.

I think we need to work on them giving a list.  We just aren't good at that in general since the kids don't really need anything and therefore never seem to want much.  Perhaps we've drilled into their heads too much about not being greedy or wanting unnecessary things.

In addition to the great pancakes and other breakfast foods, we enjoyed some crafts and Christmas music while we waited our turn.  Another great event sponsored by our church!  So thankful to be part of this community!

The Faces of Leah

Funny, happy Leah

Trying to look mad Leah

 

Serious Leah

 

We love every one of these Leah's!

Christmas Lights {Our tradition}

Last year we drove around looking at Christmas lights several times and the girls just loved that, so we decided to make it a new family tradition during the holidays.  We were sort of crunched for time since Daddy has been traveling a lot and Mommy wasn't really up for taking the three by myself - you just never know what the baby is going to be like in the car!  So, one night when Daddy was in town and Levi was already sleeping, we decided it would be a good idea to just have Daddy head out with the girls to check things out.  Jammies and hot chocolate and off they went!

 

Daddy's report was that the light displays were not nearly as good as last year.  We decided since it was so cold earlier this year, people may have decided to skip the effort.  But, the girls' report were that the lights were great so that's the important part.

We also went back to the lights display that includes music on the radio one night.  Mommy and Levi joined in the action this night.  It was fun just like last year!  Mommy sat in the backseat with Levi while the girls rocked out in the front with Daddy.

Like Big Sister

This is not his angry face, but one day when I was picking up the girls from school, Ms. Karen came over to take a peak at Levi.  He was actually awake but not exactly happy.  He frowned at her and scrunched up his forehead.  She immediately said, "I've seen that face before.  That's Lesley's angry face."  I told her that perhaps someday his angry, yet cute face might show up in her classroom.

And, not only does Levi have Lesley's angry face, but he also has her skin issues.  Not something to be happy about, but at least we've gone through it before and are better able to deal with it.  For now, we are doing lots of cerevae cream on his head, washing his hair with head & shoulders shampoo every once in a while to fight the cradle cap, and applying hydro-cortisone cream often to his cheeks, forehead, arms, chest....and pretty much everywhere else.  Hopefully we can fight off the issues before they get as bad as they were with Lesley.  We were in and out of the pediatrician's office for her skin starting at just 2 months of age, followed by regular visits to a dermatologist starting at 6 months of age.

Special dance class

The last dance class before Christmas break turned out to be pretty special.  Daddy was traveling so Mommy was on her own and had to stay at the studio for both the girls' classes.  Usually, I take Leah and Levi home after Leah's class and Daddy hangs out waiting for Lesley.

 

I'm glad Leah and I were there that night because Ms. Kristen brought Lesley's class out to the big room where the older kids were practicing and them first watch/critique the big kids.  After that, Lesley's class and Leah joined the big kids to practice their jazz steps and other 'moves' that Mommy doesn't know.

 

The sisters had fun together.  It was sweet to watch them.

 

Lesley usually wears her hair in a piggy tail, or at least with a clip...but in the rush to get to class, she left them at school.  So, she wasn't looking very put together this day.

 

 

Lesley watching one of the big girls.  I don't know what her name is, but she is one of my favorite dancers to watch among the big girls.  And, she was so sweet with Lesley and her friends.  She was trying to help them and teach them too.

 

 

The girls in line with the big kids.  I was so impressed about how outgoing Lesley was acting.  At one point, she even told Ms. Erin that the big girls were doing the shanay turns wrongs.  (I have no idea how to spell that!)

 

Leah wasn't quite as good at following along since she technically isn't doing jazz class.  She LOVES Ms. Amanda though and was her buddy during much of the practice.

 

 

Levi of course was the best little tag along.  About 30 minutes into Lesley's class, he was getting sleepy so I changed him into his jammies and held him until he went to sleep.  Then, I strapped him into the carseat and he was a perfect little angel for the rest of the night.  Lesley's class is now an hour and a half now, so it does get a little long to sit and wait.

 

I'm still trying to load and post the videos of their recital, but I need Jason to help compress the files since they got a little long.  Hopefully those will be posted soon!

For daddy

Daddy was traveling for a few weeks earlier in December.  One night Leah wanted to send some photos to Daddy on the phone.  This is what she came up with.

 

 

Lesley had to get involved too.  Once Daddy got the photos, he called and told Leah she probably didn't need to wear the sunglasses since it was dark outside.  She was hilarious, turned around slowly and purposely to look outside because she clearly did not realize it was dark.  Then, she just laughed and said, "Silly Dadda!"

A Mama's Heart

People would tell me, "There's just something about little boys."  I never really understood what that meant, until Levi came along.  It is true, there is something about little boys that their mama's can't resist.

Love giving this little guy hugs and kisses!

The pacifier

We were always afraid the girls would get attached to the pacifier so never really gave it to them until they were a month or so old.  By then, they wanted NOTHING to do with it.  They also were never thumb suckers and to this day, Lesley has never been attached to anything, not even a blanket.  Leah on the other hand, loves her blanket and is pretty attached to it.  It even goes to school with her every day and evenings can be sort of rough if we happen to forget it in her cubby.  She currently is also in love with her rubber bath turtle which is kind of annoying since I feel like I'm on the hunt for him all the time.

Well, we gave Levi a pacifier pretty much from day 1.  It worked well to calm him down in the carseat (except during that 2-3 week period when he HATED the car), and it has worked to get him back to sleep in the middle of the night without having to feed him.

He preferred the type of pacifier in the photo above versus the green round ones from the hospital.  These seemed to stay in place better whereas the others were easily knocked out by his own hands.

Lately, however, we've noticed that he doesn't care for the pacifier and fights it.  I'm trying to be positive about it knowing at least he won't get attached to it, but at the same time, there have been moments when I really wish he would just suck on it and be happy (or go back to sleep!).  We keep trying from time to time, just in case he changes his mind....especially the last few nights when he's been waking up at 3am.

Squeaky Clean

One of his most common faces is the one above where he seems to be deep in thought and biting his lower lip.  I remember him doing this day he was born and worried he'd grow up with a terrible overbite....but I don't think that's the case, it's just his thinking face.

Holiday treats

We have made a few holiday treats this year.  No fancy cut out sugar cookies or fudge or anything crazy like that, but we did make my all favorite almond bark pretzels.

I won't say it was a complete disaster but it was very messy and took quite a few deep breaths during the process.  There was a lot of finger licking, sneezing, and sprinkles everywhere.

We had guests over that weekend and I told them they were more than welcome to eat the pretzels but I could not promise that they would remain healthy because of all the "help" my girls offered while making them.  Just as I would have done, our guests passed and instead ate Daddy's pecan bars which we knew had not been contaminated by little ones.

They also enjoyed hot chocolate and marshmallows - drinking it with straws of course.

That face looks ornery, right?  She was up to no good I tell you!

You can probably guess how clean (NOT!) their clothes were after this.  Ugh.

The white chocolate chip snickerdoodles were also very tasty!

Decorating for the holidays

We didn't do quite as much decorating for Christmas this year as we've done in the past.  Unfortunately, we don't get any visitors so we are the only ones to enjoy anyway.  And, everything we get out eventually has to get packed back away.  Plus, by the time we get back from Thanksgiving travels and settled back in, there's not much time before we then start packing for Christmas travels.

Jason actually tried to convince me that just getting our Charlie Brown Christmas tree (actually known as the Linus tree at our house) was sufficient.

Thankfully we talked him down from that ledge and convinced him to help set up our other Christmas trees.

This little guy was mostly content in the swing that night as long as we went over and said hi every once in a while.  The big sisters were in charge of that.

Originally, the new big tree was going to be in the living room since we now have furniture in the dining room.  But once Daddy had it put together, we realized there wouldn't be room for the star on top.  So plans got changed, the big tree got moved to the dining room (after we moved furniture around a bit) and then the girls' new smaller tree got set up in the living room.  Their tree was going to go upstairs, but I really love it in the living room and so do the girls.  So happy I went shopping after Christmas last year, bought the tree for like 75% off and thought to also purchase all the ornaments for it too while everything was super cheap.

It's not one with pre-lit lights on it, and I didn't buy any lights when I got the tree last year after Christmas, but the girls still LOVED it and especially because we keep calling it their tree.

All the ornaments I got for it were mostly pink and purple in addition to some purple and pink beads to string around it.  It was a blast for them to decorate.

Don't tell the girls, but Santa is putting purple Christmas lights in their Santa bags this year.  Daddy was thrilled when Mrs. Claus said he will get to hang them up with the girls....his first thought was "hopefully they don't make me do it this year!"

Leah was in charge of the star for this tree - pink of course!

She was so proud and happy to have a star to put on top.  

Lesley also gets to do the other star - that's her job.

Trying to get one in front of their tree....One smile, one not so much.

Much better!  Such sweet sisters working on this holiday tradition.

Leah wasn't feeling too good the next morning so I decided to keep the girls home from school that day.  And, I thought it would be fun for them to help me spend the day decorating....and it really did take most of the day with all sorts of distractions.

Yes, not many ornaments were placed above 4 feet until Mommy did a bit of rearranging.  

Lots of ornament clusters!

These were the ornaments the girls painted.  I think the final product turned out pretty good, though the eyes on the gingerbread man are a bit scary.  :)

I love our new tree!  The star wasn't up when I snapped this photo, but it was still daylight so wanted to get one picture.

Lesley quite reach the top of the tree - it was quite the process getting it up there.

I'm still hoping to get a photo with all the kids in front of the tree....but we'll see if that ever happens.

I also added stockings hanging from the mantle and some red flowers on top of it.  Of course, I also have my few Nativity figurines around.  One of these years I'll get an actual stable for my pieces, but for now I still LOVE having them around.  The girls and I even put together some nativity puppets on popsicle sticks and a foam set too.  I'm ensuring that my love of nativity scenes is passed down!